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Book ReviewsNORMAN D. BROWN, EditorContours of Discovery: Printed Maps Delineating the Texas andSouthwestern Chapters in the Cartographic History of NorthAmerica, 1513-z930, a portfolio of facsimile maps, together withA User's Guide. By Robert Sidney Martin and James C. Martin.(Austin: Texas State Historical Association, in cooperation withthe Center for Studies in Texas History, University of Texas atAustin, 1982. Portfolio: 22 maps. Guide: Pp. vi+66. Foreword,illustrations, bibliography, glossary. $35.)With the possible exception of students of military campaigns, his-torians rarely make proper use of maps. Contours of Discovery, a port-folio collection of twenty-two maps of Texas accompanied by a signifi-cant book, modestly entitled A User's Guide, dramatically points upthe value of maps in the study of Texas history. The beautifullycolored maps in this collection range from the world maps of MartinWaldseemueller and Abraham Ortelius, published in the sixteenthcentury, to the Texas Planning Board Series, published for the TexasCentennial in 1936. Thus, they span five centuries of visions of Texas,since maps, as much as paintings and drawings, represent visualiza-tions of a place.This collection demonstrates, however, not only visions of Texas,but also the significance of the region in world politics, as well as inAmerican social, political, and economic history. We see in the eigh-teenth-century French, Spanish, and English maps an imperialiststruggle over the heartland of North America and the ways in whichTexas figured in the struggle. We see important treaty maps, such asthat of John Melish, which was used as the basis of the Transconti-nental Boundary treaty of i819, and that of John Disturnell, whichactually became part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo endingthe war with Mexico in 1848. We also see Stephen F. Austin's mapsportraying the early settlement of Texas, immigrant guide maps, andAlexander A. Grant's Railroad and County Map of 1885. Virtually theonly types of maps missing from this stunning portfolio are military